UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2022 (IPS)* – When North and South Yemen merged into a single country ushering in the Republic of Yemen back in May 1990, a British newspaper remarked with a tinge of sarcasm: “Two poor countries have now become one poor country.”
KONSO, Ethiopia, March 2022 (UNFPA)* – “I was discharged from the health facility after the stillbirth of my baby without any medication or treatment. I have been bleeding ever since,” said Asnaketch, sitting in her tent at Haylota IDP (internally displaced persons) site in Konso, a zone in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR).
Asnaketch recovering in her tent after a stillbirth at Haylota internally displaced persons site in Konso, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region state. @ UNFPA Ethiopia/Paula Seijo
Asnaketch, 25, had already lost her first baby after ethnic conflict broke out in their village, Gerchi, in Konso zone. “The whole village was burnt to the ground. When the clashes erupted, we had to move here,” says Asnaketch, in visible pain. “I lost my first son due to a complication when we were fleeing.”
MADRID, Mar 24 2022 (IPS)* – Following 20 long years (2011-2021) of brutal war on Afghanistan by the US-led military coalition, which ended up in delivering the country to the Taliban in August 2021, 23 million Afghans now face severe and acute hunger, economic bankruptcy, healthcare system collapse, unbearable family indebtedness, and devastating humanitarian crisis.
A mother and her children fled conflict in Lashkargah and now live in a displaced persons camp in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. Credit: UNICEF Afghanistan
The doctrine of permanent war dominated our lives during the Cold War and dominates our lives now.
.
Raft of Doom / Illustration by Mr. Fish
The Cold War, from 1945 to 1989, was a wild Bacchanalia for arms manufacturers, the Pentagon, the CIA, the diplomats who played one country off another on the world’s chess board, and the global corporations able to loot and pillage by equating predatory capitalism with freedom.
Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 23 2022 (IPS)* – Joan Waweru was among villagers on their regular trek to the river to fetch water when they discovered a neighbour’s dead body, believed to have committed suicide by drowning in river Kamiti.
Access to clean, affordable and safe drinking water is far from universal across Africa. Credit: Joyce Chimbi
She was thirteen years old and recalls how even after the traumatizing incident, the village, and many others along river Kamiti, which runs along coffee plantations in Kiambu County of Kenya’s Central region, continued to rely on the river as their primary source of water for all domestic purposes.
“Today the poverty rate in Syria is an unprecedented 90 percent; 14.6 million people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid.” Credit: Zak Brophy/IPS
MADRID, Mar 22 2022 (IPS)* – “Hundreds of thousands have been killed, more than half of the pre-war population – somewhere in the order of 22 million – have been displaced. More than 100,000 are missing or forcibly disappeared….
“Syria’s cities and infrastructure have been destroyed. Today the poverty rate in Syria is an unprecedented 90 percent; 14.6 million people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid.”
Geneva, Switzerland, 22 March 2022(UNEP)* – UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Mountain Advocate Malcolm Wood features in a unique new documentary released today, shining a spotlight on how the world’s water towers are being lost due to climate change.
International law is a meaningless concept when it only applies to people the US power alliance doesn’t like. Neither George W Bush nor Tony Blair are in prison cells at The Hague where international law says they ought to be.Australian whistleblower David McBride just made the following statement on Twitter:
“I’ve been asked if I think the invasion of Ukraine is illegal. My answer is: If we don’t hold our own leaders to account, we can’t hold other leaders to account. If the law is not applied consistently, it is not the law. It is simply an excuse we use to target our enemies.
(UN News)* — The UN’s top rights official said on Monday [21 March 2022] that amidst a “profound crisis” facing access to basic human rights in Myanmar following the coup in February last year, hundreds of localized armed resistance groups have now formed across the country, triggering “widespread violence in areas that were previously stable”.
.
Unsplash/Pyae Sone Htun | Young people take part in a pro-democracy demonstration in Myanmar.
.
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet told the 49th session of Human Rights Council (HRC) that the country’s humanitarian crisis continues to expand as systematic brutality by security forces known as the Tatmadaw, has inflamed pre-existing armed conflicts in multiple ethnic states.
Indonesian authorities should immediately halt plans to develop a sprawling gold mine the size of the city of Jakarta in volatile Papua Province, where it risks fueling conflict and violating the land rights of Indigenous Papuans, Amnesty International said in a new briefing published on 21 March 2022.
Intan Jaya Regency, where the gold ore deposit known as Wabu Block is located, has become a hotspot of conflict between Indonesian security forces and Papuan independence groups in recent years.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 